Tom Garrison does not think that wires have a future in corporate networks. As vice president of the Client Computing Group and general manager of the Business Client Platforms Division at Intel Corporation, he is in a position to do something about it.

Fudzilla got the chance to talk to Garrison in Munich. He may have a long title, but knows about enterprises and business customers and their needs and is keen to talk about the future of PC.

The future PC has no wires

Garrison is certain that the PC has a future, but the wired up version we know and love does not. Kirk Skaugen Senior Vice President General Manager, Client Computing Group has been talking about Intel's "cut the wires" strategy for a while. Garrison mentioned that enterprise customers have never been faster at embracing new technologies. Windows 10 helps the transition. This is the first time that a move to thin and light business notebooks is happening at the same time as the consumer market.

Garrison believes that WiGig docking stations are the first step.

We have a wireless that became ubiquitous standard for using the internet these days. It took some time, probably more than a decade but it did happen. Most people don’t even plug their devices as wireless got fast, reliable and convenient and easy to use. Intel Unite conference system is another positive example of the no wires strategy.

Garrison claims that many corportate and enterprise customers are using Intel Unite daily.

WiGig is a step forward

Now data can be transferred fast via WiGig – a technology that Garrison believes will become useful in offices around the world. Most of us are emailing each other and dropping stuff in the Dropbox cloud to download it to another PC. WiGig should make a communication between devices faster and easier.

On a longer run, we should see a PC that is powered completely wirelessly. Fudzilla had a chance to see some demos during the last few Intel Developers Forum keynotes and we liked what we saw. The future PC [this abbreviation now embraces desktop and notebook computers. Ed.] will have no wires.

Since the business and consumer notebooks weigh less than 2.2 pounds (1KG), have a lot of processing power and Core M CPUs have TDP's as low as 5.5W, we can see that wirelessly charged PCs are not far away.

We discussed drones, but this was more of an entertainment topic for us both. We agreed that it was hard to imagine drones inside of an corporate offices doing something meaningful anytime soon.

WiGig (Wireless Gigabit Alliance) chips are expected to appear in high-end smartphones in the second half of 2015, accoring to Digitimes Research.

Qualcomm, Broadcom, Panasonic, Intel and Nitero have signed up as initial suppliers, according and Samsung Electronics is likely to produce WiGig chips in-house under a technology licensing agreement.

Broadcom showcased its WiGig chips at CES 2014, and Nitero announced a comparable model in July 2014. Samsung completed development of its 60GHz Wi-Fi (WiGig) technology in October 2014, while Qualcomm highlighted its WiGig parts at CES 2015.

Since the next-generation IEEE 802 11ax standards are not expected to be finalized until 2019, WiGig will serve as a growth driver for the wireless chip industry during the interim, said Digitimes Research.

Part of the Intel's 5th generation Core vPro announcement was its Intel Wireless Docking technology.

We were there first hand and heard a lot about the new vPro and Intel's ways of making life easier and nicer for the corporate world.The main idea is to get rid of the cables and unpleasant docking systems for businesses.

Intel has told us that the Wireless Dock is shipping in 2015 but didn’t want to get in details, yesterday we saw a small square cube device from HP which apparently does the job.

Keith Gilbreth of Intel’s PCCG Business Client Platform Division said you will simply put your Broadwell based notebook on the table and the small square box will transfer the picture, keyboard and mouse control and data transfer from your notebook to a desktop keyboard, mouse and monitor.

The Wireless Docking that Intel used in that presentation was based Intel Wireless Gigabit technology that uses industry standard 802.11ad and runs 60 GHz. This is a short distance protocol that allows high bandwidth and limited distance.

The main goal is seamless transition between mobility and productivity. It takes a few seconds for wireless dock to kick and and to show your Windows desktop on your monitor and to activate the keyboard and mouse peripherals. Gilbreth used a USB sick to play a video from the dock. The dock itself has a few USB ports, LAN connector and two DisplayPort connectors. It needs an active power but this should not be an issue considering that it is meant to sit on your desk.

The video played from the USB connected at the back of the wireless dock is going wirelessly to the notebook that renders it, transfers back to the dock that finally displays it on the monitor.

It will be interesting to see how much it will cost when it becomes available and how many notebooks will support the Intel Wireless Docking. Intel appears to have most of the Notebook OEMs behind it as ultimately it will remove the need for the large box PC and network cabling from companies.

The WiGig standard has been around since 2009, but we haven't really seen it hitting that many retail devices. Back at IDF 2014, Intel demonstrated WiGig 802.11ad video, peripherals, 4K video transfer and it promised that Skylake based laptops will come out of the box with the technology.

WiGig will let you transfer up to 7Gbpps of audio, video or data via 2.4, 5 or 6GHz bands and is as fast as eight-antenna 802.11ac and nearly 50 times faster than highest 802.11n rate. It is backward compatible with WiFi standards, but due to its high frequency it is limited to short distances, usually up to 10 meters, cannot really penetrate walls but it can propagate by reflecting off of walls, ceilings or objects using beam forming.

Now Qualcomm showcased this technology for the first time and promised it inside Snapdragon 810 based devices. Qualcomm demonstrated peer-to-peer connection and transfer of 4K video between two 20nm Snapdragon 810 based tablets. One of the tablets was the sync side and it was connected directly to a 4K TV and it was clear that you could play a content from one tablet and sync it to the second one.

WiGig's 7Gbps translates to 875MB per second in the best case scenario. The Qualcomm demo shows a Plutonium MSM8994 based tablet hitting up to 187MB a second (1.5 Gbit per second) available for data transfer, with 4K multi-device streaming on the side. WiGig can possibly get to external storage, enabling faster NAS systems, future peripherals such as keyboard and mouse and on a longer run it can completely eliminate the necessity for docking stations. It will take some time but this is the grand idea.

It remains to be seen when we will be able to buy first Snapdragon 810 device with 802.11ad WiGig abilities. Qualcomm mentioned 2015 a number of times, but there's nothing more specific than that. A potential problem for this standard might be the speed of flash storage that is used in tablets and phones today. According to Androbench, the HTC One M8 can sequentially read 92.29 MB/s, sequentially write only 17 MB/s, while Nvidia's Shield tablet can sequentially read 67.75 MB/s, and write only 14.09 MB/s.

The performance gets even less impressive with smaller files, but with numbers we are getting from latest 2014 devices, the flash has to increase speed up to 10 times in order to be ready to write files at 150MB. For theoretical maximum of ridiculously fast 875 MB/s we need about 50 times faster memory that the 14-17MB/s write speed available in the current generation of high end mobile devices.

Intel has a cunning plan to revitalize the PC with a range of new technologies, which could eliminate the need for all cables within a few years.

This is not a new concept. When Apple launched the original iMac in the nineties, it tried to depict it as a much more elegant solution compared to standard PCs. There was no cable clutter at the back and the iMac was truly a thing of beauty – standard PCs were anything but.

Skylake brings support for a range of new technologies

Intel needs a few new technologies to deliver on its promise by 2016. The company is working on wireless charging, along with new data transfer technologies which will also be used for docking and display interfaces.

Intel’s next-next CPU generation, codenamed Skylake, will feature support for wireless charging, display, docking and data. Getting there won’t be easy. Wireless charging is not taking off, although the tech has been around for a few years. The trouble with today’s wireless charging devices is that they are not efficient and fail to deliver a lot of power.

Intel is working on a new wireless charging spec that should deliver 20W or more. That is enough to power many laptops and in theory it could be enough to power small desktops based on mobile parts. An office desk could double as a charger, providing juice for notebooks, tablets and phones. 20W is not enough for desktops though, but that’s where another trick comes into play.

WiGig wireless displays and modules

With wireless display tech, users could keep their desktop boxes elsewhere. Intel wants to replace all display cables with WiGig. The standard is not new, it has been out for a while, but adoption remains limited.

WiGig can deliver three times the speed of 802.11ac and it has enough bandwidth to handle displays. Intel is working on WiGig modules for a range of platforms, including laptops, desktops and of course displays. In addition to displays, WiGig can be used for peripherals, so our mice and keyboards could use it in a few years.

We believe WiGig has a bit more adoption potential than wireless charging, at least when it comes to PCs. Wireless charging is just not mature enough and it will be trickier to deploy moving forward. However, with Intel’s support WiGig could become a big deal in a matter of years. It is still too pricey for mainstream users, but with wider industry adoption that could change.

After Intel’s keynote finished we went to Justin Rantner to find a few answers about 802.11ad wireless docking concept that remained answered. We got a live demonstration that wireless docking can pass through barriers and the Intel chap was kind enough to demonstrate that. It will go through walls but this will depend on many factors especially on the thickness of the wall.

The speeds that Intel was getting were about 1.5Gbit which is quite impressive and it is enough for two monitors, wireless hard drive, wireless keyboard and notebook connection. It worked just fine as Intel demonstrated. Wireless docking actually as a big advantage as at 60MHz channels and 10 meter range, your neighbors won’t be able to interrupt your wireless docking, apart the ones that share the wall with you. Intel and this wireless alliance was thinking about that as well once the 802.11ad device starts talking with its docking, it will focus the signal to that point and won't scatter it around the room.

It also doesn’t need line of sight which also nice to know for people with a creative mess on their desks. Once wireless docking becomes reality you will buy what Intel calls WDS (WiGig Docking station) plug all cables in it and get it going wireless. You put your notebook on a table or within 10 meters (30 feet) and you are good to go.

In the future, when monitors and hard drives come with 802.11ad, you will really be able to have a truly wireless office, except of the power cords or course that is here to stick around for at least a few more years.